"I learned that..."
A response to an e-mail

"...twenty and seven now--a sweet age, when youth has lost its self - consciousness and become a little sobered by experience."

A.C. Doyle
The Sign of Four

>Date: Wed, 26 Feb 97 09:06:56 GMT
>To: cybrgbl@deltanet.com
>From: DeltaNet Form Processor
>Subject: Guest Book Signature
>
>The field values for the form received were:
>_______________________________________
>Name="Keith P."
>Age="24"
>email="keith@sogul.ae.sony.com.sg"
>City?="DUBAI"
>Country?="UAE"
>How is life treating you?="Not too bad."
>comments="Currently reading your memoirs while backpacking in Europe. Pretty interesting.
>Want to do the same one day.
>Find your views about people/places in good taste.
>Just In what way have they changed and why?"
>recipient="cybrgbl@deltanet.com"
>thankURL="http://www.rjgeib.com/about-me/guest/thank-you.html"
>___________________________________________________________

      Dear Kevin,

      Interesting question about my views and how they have changed. It makes me reflect some.

      I was 23 when I was in Europe and now I am 29 years old. I am much more pragmatic and less idealistic now. I am more humble and less know-it-all. I am more ambivalent about almost everything and less arrogant in trying to figure it all out. I think differences between people from different countries much less important than I did when I was hardly out of college and less traveled.

      I learned some problems probably have no answer. I found out that the world can be a damn cold place where you often have to fight just to survive. I learned that the good does not always win over evil.

      This is what life has taught me since then.

      Very Truly Yours,

      Richard